Around the Christmas Tree
by waitingondaisies
Summary: After their meeting at the Royal Ball, Ginny moved mountains to find Harry and rescue him from his Cinderella life with the Dursleys. A lifetime of abuse and degradation is not something he can just walk away from, though. Thankfully, Ginny is there to help him recover and to help him settle into a new life of magic and royalty. SEQUEL TO FROM THE CUPBOARD


_**December 24th**_

Harry came awake gradually. His room was grey with the light of the predawn, and the air was filled with the quiet stillness of a building full of sleeping people.

It was so near Christmas that his lessons had been cancelled, leaving Harry with nowhere to be. At some point this morning, he did want to check on the presents he'd made, but it was so early that if he got up and moved around, he'd probably wake someone up.

Even though it had been over three months since Harry had lived with the Dursleys, he still found himself waking up as early as he ever had. This meant that Harry had plenty of time this morning to keep his eyes closed and recline in his exceedingly comfortable bed.

His idleness allowed his thoughts to wander back to his first day in the castle, back when he would never have dreamed that he would have a bed this comfortable, nor even a room of his own.

* * *

_**September 5th**_

"Before I take you to the hospital wing, I wanted to show you your room, Harry! It's only a few rooms down from mine, so we'll never be too far apart," Ginny said, pushing open the door and leading the way into the room.

Harry slowly followed her through the door, still feeling dazed from the day he had had despite the nap he'd taken on the ride back to the castle.

He blinked dazedly as he took in the room. The first thing Harry noticed was that it was significantly larger than any of the bedrooms at the Dursleys had been. It was split into two areas by a half wall divider. On the left was a large bed, night stands, and the open door to a walkin closet and on the right was a small sitting area with an open door to a bathroom.

He slowly wandered into the room, staring around in amazement. "I don't need this much space," Harry said softly. "I really don't need a whole room to myself like this at all…"

Ginny scoffed and Harry glanced over at her just in time to see her roll her eyes exasperatedly. "Like hell you don't need your own room," Ginny said.

"It's just–" Harry started to say, to defend his stance.

"It's just nothing!" Ginny said, interrupting him. "You deserve your own room, your own bed, your own belongings, and this is that!" she added firmly. "Well," she amended, "we'll have to work on the belongings portion of that. But never fear, we will make sure that you own things for yourself."

Harry glanced around the room again, then back down at the sweater that he had been given by Prince Ron because he'd been shivering on the ride back to the castle, then back at Ginny. "But–"

"If this is about how Ron already gave you a sweater, then I don't want to hear it. You need more than one good article of clothing, and I will make sure you get it," Ginny said.

"I just don't know how I'll ever repay you," Harry said nervously. He knew that the king and queen had said he would be living in the castle, but that certainly didn't mean that they had to provide him with anything else. Hell, the Dursleys hadn't managed that and they'd been related to him by blood! So there was no reason at all for Prince Ron, or anyone else for that matter, to give him things.

Ginny crossed over to Harry from where she'd been standing over by the window. She laid a gentle hand on Harry's arm and said, "You don't owe us anything. Clothes and a nice place to sleep are the bare minimum of what you deserve, and we'll make sure you get them."

At the warmth in her eyes and the gentle pressure of her hand on his arm, Harry began to feel overwhelmed. He closed his eyes and stumbled over to one of the armchairs, collapsing into one of them heavily, immediately burying his face in his hands.

He was assaulted–again–by memories of all the times he'd wished desperately for this very thing. For someone to come take him away from the Dursleys and give him a place to stay and clothes and– and love.

Harry quickly crushed that last thought.

"Do you mind if I sit next to you and rub your back?" Ginny asked.

Harry said, from between his fingers, "I don't mind." He was glad that she'd asked first, because if she'd just done it without warning, he might have flinched or overreacted somehow.

Then Harry heard a rustling from beside him. He felt the cushion he was sitting on dip as Ginny sat down beside him on the chair. Despite the warning Ginny had given him, he was still slightly startled when she started rubbing gentle circles into his back.

Ginny paused in her motions and Harry forced himself to relax again, already missing the soothing effect in the moments since she'd stopped. He said, "Sorry, it's okay, I'm good."

She resumed her rubbing and Harry basked in the warmth of her affection.

After several more moments in which they just sat next to each other, Harry began to feel like he was being greedy, and that Ginny must be getting sick of babying him. So he forced himself to sit up properly and pulled his hands away from his face.

"Feeling better?" Ginny asked gently, moving her hand from his back so it rested on his shoulder.

"I'm fine now," Harry said, glancing around the opulent and obscenely large room, "but I still think that this is too much for someone like me."

Ginny bumped him with her shoulder and said, "I don't want to hear anything about this 'someone like me' nonsense. You're a wonderful person and I want you to have nice things."

Harry shrugged his shoulders slightly. He couldn't agree with her– how could he, with the way he had been raised. But it felt– nice, to have someone think such nice things about him, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

She sighed, and Harry wondered if she knew what he'd been thinking. Thankfully, she then said, "Moving on, is there anything you want to change about the decor of the room? To make it properly yours?"

"That's really not necess–" Harry tried to say. It was already too much that the room was his at all, let alone having people go out of their way to redecorate it for _him_.

"I promise, Harry, I really want this room to feel like home. Please tell me if there's anything we can change about it to make it homier," Ginny said, interrupting him gently.

"I promise."

Back at the Dursleys, when Ginny had rescued him, Harry and Ginny had sworn to be honest with each other, and so the added weight of her promise on top of that oath was enough to convince Harry to take the request seriously.

Before responding, Harry climbed to his feet and wandered through the room, taking it all in again.

The color scheme was overwhelming: a very bright yellow with bold green accents. Harry wasn't sure that he would be able to sleep comfortably in a room this bright. He also wasn't at all accustomed to asking for what he wanted, so he hesitantly asked, "Is there any way we could make the color scheme grey and blue? And a bit darker?"

"Of course!" Ginny said, getting to her feet as well.

* * *

_**December 24th**_

After Ginny had convinced Harry that she really did want to help him redecorate, Harry and Ginny had spent quite some time changing the colors of his room and rearranging the furniture into the incredibly comfortable and welcoming configuration it was now.

Harry cracked his eyes open and saw that the lighting had morphed into the warm tones of dawn. He opened his eyes properly and gestured with his hand to open the curtains.

It wasn't the right time of year for him to properly view the sunrise from his room, but his room was still positioned well to catch the light. He could tell, at a glance, that he ought to get up now if he wanted time to do everything he'd planned to do.

Harry reluctantly shoved the covers down and dragged himself out of bed.

The biggest drawback to having a bed as comfortable as the one he now had was that it made it much harder to get out of bed in the morning. He quickly dressed himself and called for a house elf to bring him breakfast.

Harry rarely took advantage of the ability to have meals in his room, vastly preferring to eat meals–and thus spend time–with Ginny and her family. But as today was Christmas Eve, Harry thought that it would be best if he avoided extraneous contact with the Weasley family as a whole.

Because so far, Harry had managed to keep all his presents a secret, but he was sure that he would crack under extended interrogation. And he rather thought the twins or Ron would try it, if given the opportunity. So, he was going to avoid that at all costs.

Harry sat down in the sitting area portion of his room and, as soon as he did, his breakfast appeared on the coffee table in front of him. His stomach rumbled as he smelt all of the delicious food, so he happily dug into the meal.

And as he sat in silence and piled food into his mouth, his mind wandered back to his first breakfast at the castle.

* * *

_**September 6th**_

"Good morning, Madam Pomphrey," Harry heard Ginny say from Madam Pomphrey's office.

Harry was in the private room between the small office where Madam Pomphrey conducted her examinations and Madam Pomphrey's bedroom where she slept. Madam Pomphrey had said that this room was positioned thusly, so that she could be there 'in a jiffy' if a patient needed anything.

"Good morning, Ginny," Harry heard Madam Pomphrey reply pleasantly. "What can I do for you this morning?"

"I was hoping that Harry would be ready to leave now," Ginny said hopefully.

Madam Pomphrey hummed thoughtfully for a moment, then said, "I think he ought to be okay to do that, but I'll need to conduct a brief examination first to be sure."

"Please do," Ginny said.

There was a knock on the door to the room that Harry was in, so he called, "Come in."

The door swung open immediately and Madam Pomphrey bustled into the room. "I need to check on your vitals, Harry. Like yesterday evening, I just need you to hold still for me."

Harry nodded, then held himself as still as he could. Madam Pomphrey then waved her wand in a complex pattern, causing a wide variety of numbers and symbols that were just as unintelligible to Harry now as they had been last night to hover in the air in front of her. She seemed to hem and haw over whatever the symbols told her.

She turned her gaze from the symbols to ask, "How do you feel, Mr Potter?"

"I'm fine," Harry said. And for once, he really meant it. As soon as he'd arrived in the Hospital Wing, Madam Pomphrey had reinforced the healing Ginny had done for him. Then he had spent the evening being rehydrated and fed small meals.

Madam Pomphrey gave him a stern look, then resumed analyzing the symbols. "Alright, Mr Potter. As long as you're careful, and you keep drinking water and eating regularly, you should be alright. Be sure to come back if you feel weak or faint, dizzy, have an inexplicably rapid heart rate, or if any of your injuries worsen."

"Yes, ma'am," Harry said respectfully.

"How's it going?" Ginny called, from behind the door to Madam Pomphrey's office.

Madam Pomphrey stepped out through the door and said to Ginny, "He's adequately healed enough to leave, so I hope you brought him something to wear, because I burnt the rags he arrived in. So all he has to wear is a sweater."

"Of course! Here, can you give him these? They're Ron's, so they should fit him alright, but I can adjust– anyways, can you give them to Harry for me?" Ginny said.

Harry glanced down at the hospital gown he was wearing, and was immediately glad that he'd have something else to wear. But then he felt a tinge of anxiety as he wondered how he'd be able to pay Ron back for the outfit– and the sweater for that matter. He knew Ginny had said he didn't owe her anything, but since Ron hadn't made the same promise, there was no reason for him to give Harry things. Harry hoped that whatever Ron wanted in return was something Harry could give. Harry wished that Madam Pomphrey hadn't burned his clothes– they were rags, yes, but they were his.

And at least if he had his rags, he wouldn't have to worry about owing anyone.

"Here you are, Mr Potter," Madam Pomphrey said as she bustled back into the room. She set the clothes down on the bed and said, "Go ahead and put these on, then you can go."

She walked back out of the room and closed the door behind her.

Privacy now obtained, Harry slowly got out of bed and slid the hospital gown off his shoulders. He had nothing else to wear, so he went ahead and put the proffered clothes on. The entire outfit was too large on him, but not nearly as large as Dudley's castoffs had been.

Once he was dressed, Harry bunched up the waistband of the trousers so he could keep them from falling down and stepped out into Madam Pomphrey's office.

Ginny took one look at him, then clapped her hand over her mouth as her shoulders started shaking. She was clearly trying to contain a laugh. Harry blushed and looked away in embarrassment. He'd forgotten that he would look ridiculous like this.

Moments after she started laughing she stopped and said, "Sorry, that was mean. Here, let me fix them for you." Then she waved her wand and cast, "_Vestimenta Sua_."

This caused the clothes Harry was wearing to shrink until it was as though they had been tailored precisely for him. Objectively, Harry knew that the clothes were fit precisely for him, but it was oddly disconcerting after a lifetime of wearing clothes that were much too large for him.

He shook the feeling off as best as he could and said, "Thank you."

"I'd better check the time," Ginny said. Then she cast, "_Tempus_." The numbers appeared floating in the air before her, and then she swore. She grabbed Harry's hand and tugged him towards the door as she said, "We have to hurry, we're running late for breakfast!"

Harry picked up his pace to match hers. A beat later he processed what she'd said and asked, "So– how should I find the kitchen? That's where you want me to be, while you eat with your family, right?"

Ginny's hurried pace faltered for a moment as she tossed a look back at Harry. "You will be eating with the family," Ginny said.

Harry blinked and attempted to think this through as they rushed through the halls. The thought that Ginny wanted him, Harry, to eat with her and her family was nearly entirely incompatible with his life experience so far. Unless…

"Does the entire castle eat together, then?" Harry asked. Because it would make far more sense for Harry to eat with the royal family if it were not a family meal. He didn't wholly understand why Ginny had not just sent him to prepare the meal, but then, she had just gotten him out of the hospital wing. Maybe he'd be tasked with chores later, after it'd been longer since he'd been in the hospital wing.

"Not usually. And this morning we're doing just a family breakfast so we don't overwhelm you too much. Thankfully, most of my brothers are out, so it shouldn't be too hectic, even with just the family and Hermione and Daphne. Right– I almost forgot to tell you, I invited Hermione and Daphne to join us!" Ginny said enthusiastically.

This was a lot. Not only was the whole castle not eating together, but they were not eating together specifically so Harry could instead eat with the royal family in a smaller setting. It almost felt like Ginny was trying to really drive home that Harry was part of the family.

After he forced himself to set this thought aside, Harry focused on the fact that, in a few short minutes, he'd get to see Hermione and Daphne without the threat of the Dursleys hanging over him.

"That's great! But uh, out of curiosity, why did you invite them?" Harry asked tentatively. He supposed that she could have invited them simply because Daphne was Ginny's friend too, and so she wanted to get to know Daphne's new girlfriend.

"Because I thought it'd be more comfortable for you to have your first meal with my family if there were at least a couple people you knew there as well. Less overwhelming, too," Ginny said, then glanced over at Harry. "If that's alright. If you think it'll be too much, we could stop by the kitchen,ask them to pack up a basket, and go eat on the grounds somewhere, picnic style."

"That's alright, I was just curious about what made you think of it," Harry said. A small part of him wanted to take her up on the offer, but it felt entirely too rude to just ditch breakfast with his friends who were, apparently, only there for him. Not to mention they'd also be ditching the king and queen.

Harry and Ginny passed through the wide doors that lead to the wing of the castle containing Harry's room.

"I feel like I should be giving you a tour as we go through the castle," Ginny said. "We just left the hospital wing, and, as you know, the royal wing is where all the members of the royal family have their bedrooms. Our family has always been large, so there are a lot of rooms there. Thankfully, the hospital wing is in the center of the castle, near where the kitchen and dining rooms are."

Harry nodded along as his mind immediately returned to his earlier thought. His suspicion that Ginny was trying to drive home the point that he was family had become firmer in his mind, but he still couldn't bring himself to believe that she would want to do something like that. Because if he managed to believe it, and then it turned out to not be true, his entire being would be crushed by the disappointment.

Ginny narrated the rest of their rush to the dining room with brief commentary on the rooms and halls they were passing. Harry retained none of it, and was sure that the next time he tried to find a room in the massively large building, he would get horribly lost.

When they arrived at the dining room, Ginny burst into the room first, pulling Harry in behind her.

"Sorry we're late, we just got carried away with decorating Harry's new room," Ginny said.

King Arthur smiled good-naturedly and said, "We figured it was something of the sort. Why don't you take your seats so we can get started on the meal?"

Ginny pulled out one of the two empty seats at the table for Harry. It was sandwiched between Hermione and Prince Ron, and Harry sat down in it, feeling self-conscious. The king and queen were the only other ones here, and everyone was staring at Harry and Ginny. Harry wondered idly where Daphne was.

Ginny sat down on her own seat gracefully. "Where's Daphne, by the way?" Ginny asked Hermione.

"Apparently she's been neglecting some of her schoolwork, so she wasn't allowed to come. But she made me promise to come anyways," Hermione said.

"And where are Fred and George?" Ginny said, this time to the room at large. "Weren't they supposed to come to meet Harry?"

Prince Ron scoffed and said, "Mum asked them not to come. Said they would be too overwhelming for Harry's first dinner with us."

"And I stand by that," Queen Molly said firmly. "They simply cannot control their urge to prank well enough for me to feel comfortable having them present now. Don't worry, Harry dear, you'll meet them soon enough. Just not in a setting where you're already consuming food."

Harry nodded, struggling to think of why it was important that he meet them in a setting where he was not eating.

In a stage whisper, Ginny said, "Their favorite method of prank delivery is in the food."

Oh. That explained a lot. "Well, thank you for protecting me from them," Harry said with a smile.

"They've truly earned their nickname 'Twin Terrors', but they can be fun once you've learned how to defend yourself," Hermione said.

"You didn't always think that way, Hermione," Prince Ron said. "In fact, I think part of the reason they dropped out of Hogwarts before they could get a mastery was because they thought that if they stayed, you would end up killing them."

"Don't put their lack of educational commitment on me, Ronald Weasley!" Hermione said firmly. "Besides, it's not like most people stay for their masterys anyways. I certainly doubt you would have if you weren't the heir."

"Yes, well, most people find the first seven years at Hogwarts perfectly adequate to prepare them for their lives," Prince Ron said.

Harry had been watching Ron and Hermione snipe back and forth over the breakfast table. He'd always known that Hermione had attended school with Prince Ron and Ginny and all the others, but to watch her interact with them like this was something else entirely.

The rest of the meal was spent listening to Prince Ron, Ginny, and Hermione bicker with each other over trivial things. Harry was rarely pulled into the conversation, and he got the feeling that they were trying not to overwhelm him by forcing him to participate, which he deeply appreciated.

He was still very nervous around the royals, the king and queen in particular. It was an oddly nice feeling that they were looking out for him in that way, because he would have thought that he'd be left out of the conversation because no one wanted to talk to him.

But instead, it felt like he was being left out as a courtesy.

As the meal drew closer to its conclusion, the king and queen excused themselves. Not long after that, Ron excused himself as well, so it was just Harry, Ginny, and Hermione sitting around the table.

"So, how's the castle been, Harry?" Hermione asked, setting down her mug that she'd been sipping at.

"Well," Harry said tentatively, "I've spent most of my time here in the hospital wing. But before I went there Ginny showed me my room and she decorated it for me, which was really nice."

"He says I decorated it, but really, he directed me and I did the grunt work," Ginny said.

Harry frowned and said, "But you're the one who told me what kinds of things I could change. So really, I wouldn't have managed to do anything at all without your direction, Ginny."

"Let's just call it a team effort," Hermione said. "So, what's your plan for today?"

Harry glanced around the table at all the dirty dishes still lying about and said, "I should probably help clean the dishes."

"What?" Hermione asked.

"I've told him," Ginny said, sounding a little exasperated and a little fond, "but he keeps thinking that he's here to be a slave or a servant."

Harry shrugged uncomfortably. "You've just done so much for me, there has to be something I can do to pay you back."

"We haven't even done all that much for you yet!" Ginny exclaimed.

Harry shrugged again. He didn't know how to explain to her that they had done a lot for him. More than he could ever explain, really.

"I don't know a whole lot about what went on at the Dursleys, but I do know that they deliberately deprived Harry of many things," Hermione said slowly. "So what you, Ginny, view as the bare minimum, or even just the beginning, is unparalleled generosity to Harry."

Harry wrapped his arms around himself, feeling vulnerable from Hermione's astute observation.

Ginny was looking thoughtfully between Harry and Hermione. "That makes a lot of sense," she said.

"Look," Harry said, "I just don't want to owe anyone anything, and I know you said I wouldn't owe you anything for things like the room, but Prince Ron never said anything like that, and I've now taken a sweater and a whole new outfit from him. And then there's the food, which I've done nothing to earn–"

"You don't have to earn your food," Hermione said, cutting him off. "You should never have had to earn your food in the first place. Food is a right, not a privilege."

Ginny nodded and said, "And a couple things about Ron. He will probably be embarrassed if he hears you call him 'Prince Ron', so unless you want to tease him, you probably ought to avoid doing that. In fact, you ought to call my whole family by name and not by title. The only time we use titles is on stuffy old boring occasions where we have to. That aside, Ron is definitely happy to share, and he has too much clothing as it is, so you have absolutely no need to worry about paying him back."

"But…" Harry started to say, then trailed off when he realized he had no idea what he was going to protest.

"There's really no buts, Harry," Hermione said. "Ginny knows Ron. He has a lot of faults, but whatever it would take for him to demand payment for things he has in abundance isn't one of them."

"You can trust me on this, Harry," Ginny said seriously.

At this, Harry nodded. He did trust them. Hermione was his first and oldest friend, and Ginny had sworn a pact with him so they would be honest with each other.

But he still felt a lingering pang of guilt at how much of a burden he was. He pushed it away for now, though, because he didn't want to, well, burden anyone else with his problems.

"So, what are you looking forward to studying?" Hermione asked.

Harry glanced helplessly at Ginny, but she just stared back at him. He turned his gaze back to Hermione and shrugged as he said, "I really don't– I don't know really. All the things you've told me about over the years have all sounded interesting… I'd really like to do more flying, I guess."

At this, Ginny perked up and Hermione rolled her eyes.

"You've flown?" Ginny asked excitedly.

"It's how I got to the Ball," Harry said. "I snuck Dudley's broom– that he couldn't fly– out and flew it to the castle."

"Well, flying isn't really studying, but I'll make sure that we do plenty of that," Ginny said happily. "I'm always looking for an excuse to fly more."

Hermione looked rather bored with this conversation topic, so Harry said, "You're still in school, right, Hermione? So what're you studying?"

Hermione actually bounced up and down in her seat. "Ooh, where to begin! Well, I'm working on my mastery now, under Professor McGonagall. How to explain it simply… It's a fusion of a couple fields, namely Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy, trying to see how they interact under strictly controlled conditions. It's ever so exciting and I really hope that you'll have more time, now that you'll be living in the castle, for us to talk about stuff like this."

Ginny said, "He'll definitely have time to talk about stuff with you, and you'll have even more time if you want to help tutor him in those fields."

"Could I really?" Hermione gasped.

"I don't see why not!" Ginny said.

A part of Harry couldn't fathom why Hermione– or Ginny, for that matter– would want to give up some of their free time to tutor him. But then Hermione at least made some sense, because when he had lived with the Dursleys, they'd never gotten time together that wasn't spent doing something else. At least now they'd be studying together rather than grocery shopping together.

"So is Harry coming to Hogwarts with us?" Hermione asked.

Harry had been given the impression that he would not be, but he wasn't entirely sure, so he stayed quiet, hoping Ginny would know and answer for him.

Thankfully, she did. "My parents and I thought it would be best if Harry was taught here at the castle. He'll be learning a lot differently than the people who started on time, and the people who would be his yearmates are all graduated or working on their masters."

That sounded good to Harry, so he nodded in agreement. He hardly wanted to be stared at by all the students who had been fortunate enough to start on time.

Hermione squinted thoughtfully. Then she said slowly, "Maybe I could come to the castle on weekends instead of going home to my parents. And I could help Harry out then."

"I'd like that, as long as you don't mind–"

Hermione jumped out of her chair, pulling Harry out of his to squeeze him in a hug, effectively cutting him off. Harry stood there limply, simply letting her hug him. It felt nice to finally be able to let her hug him without it aggravating some half-healed injury.

Harry heard Ginny get to her feet as well. "Do you want to go have a tour of the library?" Ginny asked. Then she added, "Both of you, since we'll probably be spending a lot of time there."

Hermione released Harry from the hug and grabbed his hand instead. "I'd love that," she said enthusiastically.

"I'd like that too," Harry said.

* * *

_**December 24th**_

Once Harry had finished eating, he banished the dishes back to the kitchen and went to check on his appearance in the mirror. He decided that he looked as presentable as he was ever going to manage, and so he ventured out of his room to start the day.

Harry rushed through the hallways as quickly as he could, making his way through the castle to his workroom. He was wary of running into someone– like the twins or Ron– who would interrogate him about the presents he had gotten them. Harry trusted that Ginny would leave it be, but he rather thought that the twins would push until he cracked, and Harry very much wanted to not ruin the surprise.

Harry was so glad that he had a workroom to retreat to and store things in. Ginny had insisted on finding him a permanent space to work on things like drawing and sewing once it had become clear that Harry enjoyed doing them. She'd found the perfect room that sat just inside the outer wall of the castle.

The room was in a quiet part of the castle where Harry could focus on whatever he was doing, and there was plenty of natural light for him to work under. Harry loved the room so much that it tended to be the first place where people would look for him if they needed to find him.

Harry had decided to hand-make all the presents he was giving out this year, and since this room was where he had made most of them in the first place, it was a convenient place to store the presents as well.

Harry was really hopeful that everyone would like what he'd made them, because he'd put a lot of thought into what to make them. And he'd also put a lot of thought into the best way to make his gifts, because he was getting much better at magic now. After about three and a half months of tutoring from Ginny and Hermione, he had unlocked the option to integrate magic with his crafting.

Having so many choices had made everything that much more complicated, but Harry thought he'd made good choices.

Anyways, Harry was glad that his workroom was in the royal wing, because he was able to walk there quickly and without incident. As Harry entered the room, he carefully closed the door behind him and sealed it by saying, "_Colloportus_."

Harry turned back around, glancing over the gifts that were littered across all of the available flat surfaces. He had trays and trays of cookies that he'd discretely baked. He was planning to pass them out to the house elves and other servants at the castle, which was why the trays were taking up the most space.

On the windowsill by the back wall there was a stack of paper. Harry had taken Hermione's copy of _Hogwarts, a History_ and roughly illustrated something from each chapter for her. Next to the illustrations was a framed drawing that he'd done of Hermione and Daphne together that he planned to give to Daphne.

His gifts to Ginny's family were In a small basket under his main work table. He knelt down to pull them out, just to make sure that everything was organized and ready to go. He'd sewn various articles of clothing that he thought would suit each person. He had also embroidered everything with the names of their recipients. Everything looked like it was in order, so after a quick charm to remove any wrinkles, Harry refolded the clothes and placed them back into the basket. Then he slid the basket back under his table.

Next, Harry went to check on the most important gift of them all. It was carefully nestled under layers of packing paper, and sat in a cushioned basket on top of a shelf. Harry carefully removed the basket and cleared off a space on the worktable to set it down.

Harry removed the packing paper, then lifted the snowglobe out of the basket. A gentle smile spread over his face as he considered the gift he'd made for Ginny. He'd transfigured both the glass for the snowglobe and the base, which he'd then painted.

Inside the snowglobe were figurines of himself and Ginny flying. The figurines had been carved, painted, and charmed to fly in lazy circles.

Once Harry was satisfied that the snowglobe appeared to be finished, he pulled out his wand to check over all the of the snowglobe's enchantments. This was something he'd done nearly daily since he'd started working on the snowglobe, and he was sure that the process was a little overboard, but he was just so excited to have someone to give a gift to that he wanted to do it right.

And as Harry finished his litany of diagnostic spells, his wand hand came to a halt in front of his field of vision. For a long moment, Harry stared blankly at the image before him: the wand in his hand overlaid on the snowglobe. As he did so, the memory of Ginny taking him to get his wand flowed into his mind.

* * *

_**September 9th **_

Harry forced himself to take a deep breath. Ginny had reassured him, probably dozens of times, that he definitely had magic. So there was no real reason for him to be worrying so much– he just wished his nerves would get the message.

"It'll be okay, Harry, I'll be right there with you the whole time," Ginny said, squeezing his hand as she reassured him yet again.

"Thank you," he said, then squeezed her hand back. Harry still felt a little ridiculous for being so, well, _needy_, but it just felt so nice that she was willing to say what he needed to hear.

They were on the way to Ollivander's so that Harry could get a wand. Harry was still nervous that none of the wands would choose him.

Harry had spent the past couple of days just settling into the castle and sorting through the Weasleys' old possessions with Ginny for things that he could use. Ginny had tried, at first, to insist that Harry ought to let her take him shopping for entirely new things, but Harry had thankfully been able to convince her to let him have hand-me-downs instead.

It still felt like he was a burden, but at least he wasn't racking up the debt of an entire wardrobes' worth of clothes. And since he was used to wearing others' cast-offs, it felt more routine to him.

"Are you sure I can't find a used wand somewhere?" Harry asked, as the thought had suddenly struck him. He couldn't imagine that a wand would be cheap, but at least a _used_ wand wouldn't be as bad as a new one.

Ginny threw him an indecipherable look, then said, "As Ollivander would say, 'The wand chooses the witch, and you won't get nearly as good results from using someone else's wand.' And it's not like we can't afford to get you the wand that chooses you, anyways."

"I probably should've known that," Harry said, though he wasn't entirely sure who Ollivander was. Really, he was pretty sure that Ginny cared enough about his comfort that, if it were possible for him to get a used wand, she would have made it happen for him. Or at least mentioned that she'd tried to find one for him.

"I told you where we're going, right?" Ginny said, suddenly.

Harry stared at a random point off in the distance, trying to remember if she had. "I– Well, if you did, I've forgotten," he said.

"In all honesty, I probably just forgot that you wouldn't know where the only place to get wands is, which is Ollivander's," Ginny said. "It's essentially this kinda creepy, kinda cool hut in the middle of the woods. He says he's located there so he can collect the supplies he needs more easily, but, just between us, I think he chose the location for the aesthetic."

Harry nodded. He hadn't ever seen the place she was talking about, or met Ollivander, so it wasn't like he could agree intelligently.

"You don't have to say anything now, but trust me, you'll know what I mean when you see it," Ginny said. "Speaking of things you need to see, though, I want to take you to visit Hogwarts at some point. You may not be attending as a student, but you can certainly take in the sights and meet the professors."

"I'd like that a lot," Harry said. "I'd like to see the place my parents– and all my friends– went to school. And maybe see some of my parents' favorite places, if possible."

Harry glanced over in time to meet Ginny's warm brown eyes. He still felt a twinge of anxiety at meeting her eyes, which was thanks to a lifetime of being told not to look his betters in the eye, even though she had told him many times that it was something she preferred. But then the anxiety was quickly burned away by the smile Ginny gave him.

"I think we can arrange that. I'm sure there's some record somewhere of that… I'll have to ask around," Ginny said thoughtfully.

"Maybe that family friend your father mentioned?" Harry suggested.

"Oh, yes! I forgot about that. Thank you, Harry, that'll be a great place to start. But we'll have to figure out the details of that later, because," Ginny said, coming to a halt, "we've arrived."

Harry frowned in surprise, then quickly surveyed their surroundings. At first glance, they were in a completely nondescript clearing in the woods. But closer inspection revealed the cottage camouflaged amongst the trees.

It certainly looked like the kind of place one went to buy a magic wand.

And now Harry also understood what Ginny had meant about the purveyor choosing the location based on the aesthetic. "I get it," he said quietly as he dismounted.

"Hmm?" Ginny asked, brushing herself off.

Harry didn't really want to clarify what he was talking about just then– it felt too much like tempting fate to make fun of the man who would soon sell him a wand. And a wand seller was probably perfectly capable of hearing everything that was said by people who were standing on what was essentially his front lawn.

"Oh, wait, no I got it. And I'm glad you see it too, because half of my brothers do not, and they are absolutely infuriating in their mockery of something that is blatantly obvious."

A small part of Harry wondered if her brothers only disagreed for the sake of disagreeing, but he refrained from saying it aloud because Ginny was probably already well aware of it.

"Shall we?" Ginny asked, gesturing at the front door of the cottage, then proferring her arm for Harry to take.

He placed his hand on her arm and she led the way into the cottage.

* * *

_**December 24th**_

After Harry finished putting the finishing touches on the gifts he'd made, he checked the time with his magic. It was about the time that he and Ginny had agreed to get together in advance of their meeting with Alice Longbottom.

Harry had asked Ginny to come with him to meet her because he wasn't sure he'd be able to make it through a conversation with a friend of his parents' without support.

He and Ginny had decided to meet outside her room several minutes before Mrs Longbottom was due to arrive, so they could walk together to the foyer to greet her.

After sealing the door to his work room by casting, "_Colloportus_," Harry hurried through the hallways to Ginny's room. As he walked down the hall that her room was on, he spotted her step out of her room, moments before he got there.

She turned to face him with a grin and said, "Right on time, as always." Then she held her arms out for a hug to greet him, as she always did, and Harry quickly stepped into the hug and squeezed her back.

"It's just how I am," Harry said, before he released the hug.

"And what a polite way to be it is," Ginny said. She held out her arm for Harry to take, so he placed his hand on the proffered arm and they set off towards the foyer where Mrs Longbottom would be arriving.

"So, how are you feeling?" Ginny asked, after a moment or two of them walking together in companionable silence.

Harry shrugged one shoulder and said, "A little nervous, but mostly alright, because you're going to be there with me."

Ginny glanced over at him and smiled. "I'll always be there. Whenever you need me."

"And I'll always be there for you," Harry said warmly.

Anything else they might have said was cut off by the arrival of Ron.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked curiously, as he fell into step with Harry and Ginny.

"To meet a friend of my parents."

"That's today?" Ron asked. "I thought you were doing that tomorrow."

"Obviously it's today because we're going to meet her now," Ginny said scathingly.

"Well, I can at least walk you to meet her," Ron said. "And since I've got you here, Harry, what did you get me for Christmas?"

Harry groaned. He'd known Ron would do this! "I told you I wasn't going to tell you! It'll ruin the surprise."

Ron started to say, "Let me guess at least! Did you get me… a sweat–"

"Don't harass Harry!" Ginny said, interrupting Ron. "I'll tell mum that you were pressuring him, and then we'll see what she has to say about that."

Harry glanced over at Ron and saw that he'd blanched in response.

"I'll just– uh, go see how Draco is doing," Ron said, then turned around and hurried down a side hallway.

Ginny rolled her eyes and called after him, "She'll be just as mad at you for antagonizing Draco you idiot!"

As they walked down the staircase into the foyer, Ginny said, "One day they're gonna get over themselves and snog each other, and that day will be our last day of peace, mark my words."

"Wait, is that why they argue so much?" Harry asked, suddenly remembering all the times that Ron and Draco– a frequent visitor to the castle– had derailed an entire event so they could bicker.

Ginny shrugged as she guided herself and Harry into a seat on a bench in the foyer. "Who knows, but I guess only time will tell."

Harry nodded and rested his head on Ginny's shoulder as they settled in to wait. They'd timed their arrival so that they shouldn't have to wait long, but Harry was quick to take any opportunity to be in contact with Ginny.

Mrs Longbottom proved herself to be punctual a minute or two after Harry had set his head on Ginny.

The castle doors swung open and a woman with a plump, happy-looking face and short blonde hair strode into the foyer.

Harry and Ginny got to their feet and Harry stepped forward to shake her hand. "You must be Mrs Longbottom," Harry said.

"Please, call me Alice," she said.

Harry released her hand and glanced at Ginny. "You probably already know, but I'm Harry and this is Ginny."

As he introduced her, Ginny stepped forward to shake Alice's hand.

"Shall we go sit down and eat?" Ginny asked, after she had released Alice's hand.

Harry nodded and Alice gestured for them to lead the way. Ginny directed them to a small dining area off the main floor that had been set aside for their use today. When they walked into the room, Harry saw that it was a small, tastefully decorated room. The square table was set for three and their meal was already laid out, ready to be served.

Ginny pulled out Harry's seat, which he sank into gratefully.

Alice took the seat across from Harry and Ginny sat between them, on Harry's left.

There were several more moments of silence as they all set about serving themselves and getting a start on eating the food.

"So," Alice said, after several minutes, "what did you want to hear about?"

"Everything," Harry replied immediately. "Just… Everything."

Ginny placed her hand on his knee and he glanced at her and smiled, then returned his gaze to where it had been riveted on Alice.

"Well… I guess I can start with what I know about them, in terms of basic facts. If I start telling you things that you already know, feel free to stop me," she said.

Harry nodded, knowing that there was next to know chance she'd say something he already knew. There just hadn't been anyone else who could tell him details about his family, the things that he really wanted to know. All he knew was that his parents had died in defense of the Royal Nursery when he had been a baby.

"So, James and Lily Evans-Potter. They– god, sorry, this is hard. They were some of my best friends, Lily and I were even pregnant together. My son was born one day before you were, Harry. But, back to your parents. James's birthday was March 27th and Lily's was January 30th. I'll skip their physical appearance because you've seen a portrait of them, right?"

Harry shook his head mutely. The Dursleys would have died before they allowed any such thing in their house, so any portrait had probably all been destroyed.

"I could have sworn they had their portraits painted though… Well, you haven't seen them, so I'll do my best to describe them. Lily had hair red as they come, but a much darker red than the classic Weasley shade. She had a heart-shaped face and a gorgeous smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were exactly the same as yours, Harry.

"Speaking of the same as you, Harry, James looked exactly like a taller version of you, except his eyes were hazel– the kind where they looked brown in some lightings and green in others. They were so, _so _in love with each other that you could feel it in the air around them.

"But they weren't always like that, they started out hating each other and doing their best to outdo each other at every opportunity. Much like Neville has told me that Ron and Draco are. Then after school, they both decided to forgo a mastery and they each chose to go to the Academy for the Royal Guard, independently.

"They both overreacted hilariously when they found out that they would not be free of each other. And their competition drove them to pass through the classes and qualifications faster than anyone had in decades, and by the time they graduated, they had realized that they were madly in love," Alice said, then paused to eat some more of her lunch.

Harry took a moment to simply take in all the new information as she ate. Ginny's hand was still on his thigh and he absentmindedly placed his own hand over hers. There was so much information about his parents that he'd never known before. Especially the parts about their appearances, because he'd always tried to imagine what they looked like, but had never _known._

He was overcome by the urge to find a mirror and stare into what he now knew was his father's face and his mother's eyes.

A glance over at Alice showed that she was still engrossed in her meal, so Harry discretely transfigured his spoon into a mirror. He held it up and stared at his face, trying to feel a connection to his parents through the pieces of themselves that they'd given him.

After several moments, Ginny's hand squeezed his thigh and he put the mirror down. He saw that Alice had slowed in her consumption of food again, so he sheepishly said, "Sorry, I'm ready to listen again."

Alice had a deeply sad, yet understanding look on her face. "That's alright, you can take a moment if you need it. I can't even imagine how it would feel to not know what my parents– or, god forbid– my son look like."

Harry shook his head slightly and said, "It's alright, I'd like to hear more about them, if you don't mind."

"Of course I don't mind," Alice said. "So let's see, James and Lily were incredibly competitive and drove each other to ridiculous feats just to show the other up. But James had another source of motivation for some of his studies. He had three best friends all through Hogwarts. Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew."

Harry perked up at the names of more of his father's friends. He wondered if he could write the two that he hadn't heard of before…

"Oh, sweetie," Alice said. "I guess I should have known we'd talk about this." She sighed and rubbed her hand over her face.

Harry felt a twinge of guilt at making her relive what were clearly painful memories, especially since it seemed he might have more people to ask about his parents. He said, "You don't have to, if you don't want to."

"No, no, you deserve to know. So, James and Lily died defending the Royal Nursery, which at the time housed Ron, Neville, and you, Harry and Ginny. Peter was the reason that the Nursery even needed defending. There was a group of bandits at the time, they called themselves the 'Death Eaters', and they threatened Peter into giving them access. The Death Eaters managed to kill James and Lily just before help arrived to help subdue them, but Peter managed to slip away.

"Sirius chased after Peter, but Sirius was so badly wounded from the battle in the nursery that Peter managed to– to kill him," Alice paused for a moment to collect herself.

Harry needed the time too. It was ridiculous because he had just learned Remus and Peter's names and yet it felt like Harry had lost something. He pulled his hand off of Ginny's and gripped it with his other hand, trying to squeeze them so hard that they stopped shaking. He took a deep breath and forced his shoulders to relax. His hands finally stopped shaking just as Alice started talking again.

"Remus turned up just in time to see Peter deal the final blow and Remus went into a rabid rage at the sight. The guards showed up, then, and when they saw that Remus was standing over the bodies of Peter and Sirius– two highly respected young men– they… they shot first and asked questions later.

"See, part of the problem was that Remus was a known werewolf, and people tend to think the worst of werewolves–"

"It's absolutely disgusting prejudice," Ginny cut in. "My brother Bill was attacked by a werewolf while he was on a curebreaking job, and while he's not a full werewolf because the werewolf that attacked him wasn't fully transformed at the time of the attack, he still faces discrimination and distrust because of it."

Harry's jaw fell open at the horror of it all and he wrapped his arms around himself. At least four people had died because of one cowardly traitor. And Harry's own life with a loving family had been stolen from him.

Alice wiped away a few tears.

Ginny got up from her seat and dragged her chair around the table so that it was right next to Harry's. She draped her arm around his shoulders and gave his arm a few bracing rubs.

"Do you need another moment?" Ginny asked.

Alice took a shuddering breath, then said, "I'm alright now. That's the worst of it, anyways. So, I mentioned that Remus was a werewolf. That wasn't always known, and when he was in school, he'd managed to keep it hidden from most people for most of his education. But he didn't quite manage to keep hidden from _everyone_.

"Sirius, James, and Peter managed to uncover his secret. And rather than rat him out or anything else horrible, they decided to undertake an intense study so they could help ease his painful transformations.

"They decided to become Animagi. Sirius was a massive black dog, James was a stag, and Peter was a rat. Really, they should have been suspicious of him just because of that, in my opinion, but I digress. They got into a lot of mischief using their forms in addition to traipsing around on the full moon.

"But as fun as they found running around in their animal forms, at its heart, the idea had been to support their friend. Which is, I think, a large part of the reason that Lily started to change her mind about James."

Harry nodded, taking in this new bout of information. He was exceedingly grateful to hear that his father had been kind-hearted and someone to look up to, contrary to everything the Dursleys had ever told him.

Alice scratched at her head then said, "Are you _sure_ that you've never seen a portrait of your parents? I really think that they had one done."

Harry shook his head and said, "I'm sure. That's not the kind of thing I'd forget."

"Of course, of course, it's just. That should have been delivered to whoever got custody of you, along with the rest of James and Lilys' possessions," Alice said.

"Wait," Harry said slowly, "the portrait should have been delivered directly to my– my guardians?"

"That's right," Alice said.

Harry closed his eyes in disappointment and said, "Then it was probably burned. Vernon and Petunia, my guardians, hated my parents. They would never have allowed a portrait of them to stay in their home." To himself, he muttered, "They barely allowed me to stay."

Alice and Ginny both gasped.

"They _wouldn't," _Alice said, sounding horrified.

Harry shrugged. He didn't know how to convey the degree to which he was certain that the only image of his parents had probably been burned or shredded or otherwise destroyed. Along with anything else his parents had owned.

"I think," Ginny said haltingly, "I think that they would have." Then, angrily, "Hard labor was too good of a sentence for those monsters."

"Sentence?" Alice asked.

Ginny glanced at Harry and Harry shrugged and gestured for her to go ahead. He didn't care to talk about the Dursleys.

"They were arrested and charged for abuse of authority, among other things. They treated Harry horribly and I'm just glad that they were brought to justice, even if I think that the sentence was too light," Ginny said.

"I just never want to see them again," Harry said truthfully. He didn't really care much what had happened to them, just that he never had to see them again.

"Wait– is Harry the impetus behind all those changes to the law that got pushed through a couple months ago? I was telling Frank that I wanted to kiss whoever had motivated that because, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, Ginny, it was about damn time," Alice said.

"No, I agree," Ginny said. "And it was Harry that was the motivation. We had to get the laws changed so we could properly charge the Dursleys for their crimes."

A badger patronus appeared, then. It said, "Alice dear, if you could come home as soon as possible, I would greatly appreciate it. I may have irreparably broken my mother's vase and she is _on her way, please help me fix this or she will kill me. _Thank you dear."

Alice snickered as the patronus dissipated. She got to her feet and said, "I'm afraid I'll have to cut this short. It seems my husband is in dire need of assistance. It's the holidays, you know, and Augusta, my husband's mother, is a force of nature."

Harry and Ginny followed suit and Harry said, "I hope you manage to sort that out. How do you even manage to break a vase beyond repair?"

Alice smiled and said, "I suspect his mother charmed it to be irreparable so she could know if we ever broke it, but I'm willing to bet I can break the charm, so I need to hurry over so I have a chance to try before she arrives."

Harry nodded as Ginny said, "Then the best of luck to you both."

"Thank you," Alice said. Then she pulled first Ginny, then Harry, into warm embraces. "I can see myself out," she said as she released them.

"Alright," Ginny said.

Then Alice strode out of the room.

Harry sat back down heavily. That had been a lot of information to process. So many things he'd never known about his parents, all at once.

Ginny sat back down next to him and said, "How are you doing?"

Harry shrugged and reflexively said, "I'm fine."

"Let's try that again," Ginny said sternly.

Harry blinked and took a moment to mentally sort through all the things he was feeling. "Honestly… I'm mostly feeling overwhelmed. Like– I had no idea that my parents looked at all like me. Or how, specifically, they'd died. Or, anything that Alice told me, really."

Ginny nodded and gave him a moment to keep going. He didn't have anything else to add, so a moment later, Ginny said, "Of course you're feeling overwhelmed, anyone would in your position. Is there anything I can do to help you sort through it all?"

Harry ran his fingers through his hair and gave this some thought. He'd come a long way since he'd first met Ginny– he now knew that she genuinely meant the offer. After a further moment's thought, he said, "I think I'd really like it if we could go to a parlor and I could lie down with my head on your lap while I think through everything."

A satisfied smile spread across Ginny's face. She took his hand and said, "Let's go then."

* * *

_**December 24th, later**_

There was a knock on Harry's open door frame, then Ginny asked from the corridor, "Are you ready to go yet, Harry?"

"Go?" Harry asked. He was seated in his favorite armchair and he craned his head back so he could make eye contact with Ginny.

"To go open presents with my family," Ginny said.

Harry paused, surprised that he was invited. He had been under the impression that the event was only for Weasleys, and he said so.

"Well, you're invited too," Ginny said, in response.

Harry processed his shock quickly, then set aside his book as he got to his feet. "I'm ready to go, then," he said. He was glad that he hadn't made any plans of his own for this time that he'd really thought was just for the Weasley's. He'd known for ages that every Christmas Eve, all the Weasleys present gathered and their parents would give them a single gift to open.

He figured that Ginny just wanted him there to keep her company, and he was more than happy to oblige. Harry and Ginny had spent the rest of the time till dinner relaxing and talking over what Harry had been told in a parlor near where they'd had lunch. Then after dinner, they'd split apart so Harry could get some reading done, and Harry had assumed so Ginny could leave for her family gathering without him.

But he had apparently been wrong about that last part.

He was honestly looking forward to seeing what kinds of things the king and queen would get for their children.

Ginny was guiding him down the corridor that Harry's bedroom was on, and he realized that he had no idea where they were going.

"Where are we going, Ginny?" he asked as the question occurred to him.

"Oh, right, sorry. We're going to my parents' suite. We always open our gifts to each other in their sitting room," she said.

Harry stumbled a little in his shock that he had been invited to sit with the Royal Family in the king and queen's private suite.

"Are you sure I'm supposed to go?" Harry asked in a hushed tone.

"I am certain that you are supposed to go," Ginny said firmly.

Harry nervously rubbed his hand across the hair on the back of his head. "We'll be able to sit next to each other, right?"

Ginny glanced over at him and placed her hand soothingly on the small of his back. "Of course we will," she said.

They were outside the double doors that lead to their destination, then, so Ginny held open the door for him.

Harry walked in first, wishing that he'd thought to open the door for Ginny, for once, because they were the last ones to arrive, and everyone was staring at Harry.

"Happy Christmas Eve!" all the Weasleys chorused.

"Happy Christmas Eve," Harry and Ginny echoed together.

"Have a seat, have a seat," Molly said, gesturing towards an available loveseat.

Ginny took his hand and towed him towards it, then seated herself first and pulled Harry down on top of her.

Fred and George wolf-whistled in unison and Harry rolled his eyes.

"You're just jealous children," Ginny said smugly.

"Can we not?" Ron asked sullenly.

"Children, children, please be civil," Arthur said, holding his hands up placatingly. Fred, George, and Ginny all subsided.

"Alright," Arthur said, once it was peaceful again, "since everyone that can make it is here, why don't we get started?"

All the children gave a resounding cheer at this and Harry belatedly joined in. He knew that he wasn't going to be getting anything– he wasn't a Weasley, after all– but he wanted to participate in the tradition as much as he could, and the siblings' unified response suggested that the cheering was a part of it.

After that, Arthur and Molly alternated going around the room, giving each of their children a present to open.

Ginny opened her gift– a new broomstick– last and Harry began to shift a little impatiently when she finished thanking her parents by hugging them both, just as her siblings had done. He had gone back to thinking about the book he was reading and wanted to get back to his room so he could finish it.

Oddly enough, though, no one else seemed to be getting up. And, Harry realized, they were all staring at him.

"There's one more present left," Arthur said.

Harry frowned and scanned all the Weasleys. As he'd thought, they all had a present already. Maybe Arthur had gotten something for Molly? Harry had been under the impression that the tradition was just for the parents to give a gift to their children, but then, he could have been mistaken.

He was not, after all, family.

"Harry, dear," Molly said, "we couldn't think of a way to wrap your present, because it's not really a material possession."

Harry's mind went blank. A moment later, he recovered enough to say, "What?"

"You didn't think I brought you just to watch _us_ open gifts, did you?" Ginny asked

Harry shrugged and said, "Well, yes, I did. But I didn't mind because I like to spend time with you. All of you."

"I'm sorry to say that the gift I'm giving you was, technically, already yours," Arthur said, bringing the conversation back around.

Harry nodded, now curious as to what he could be given that was already his and not a physical possession.

"So, as you know, your parents died defending our children– and you– from bandits and that, for their service, they were posthumously awarded Orders of Merlin. What you may not have known was that I awarded you, their son, an Earlship. You were supposed to receive it on your 18th birthday, and when time passed without you coming to the castle to receive your inheritance, I had assumed that you did not want it. I realized not too long ago, after you came to the castle, that you had probably never been informed of your inheritance."

Harry shook his head mutely. Here was yet another thing that the Dursleys had kept from him.

"Oh, wait, Arthur, there _is_ a physical thing we can give him. The key," Molly said suddenly.

Arthur clapped his palm to his face, then pulled his wand out, summoning a key from somewhere. "As part of the earlship, you were also supposed to receive the gold award for your parents' service. This key," Arthur said, handing the key to Harry, "is to your vault at Gringotts."

Harry dazedly turned the key over in his hand, examining it. After everything else that had happened that day, he felt too dazed to truly process this too. A stray thought made it through the haze and he began to worry that this was probably just another form of charity. So if he messed up somehow, they'd be able to just take it all away, leaving him worse off than he had been before.

Something of his worry must have shown on his face, because then Arthur said, "And no matter what happens, the vault and the title are yours to keep. Even if you have a falling out with Ginny or anyone else, we cannot take it away from you, Earl Potter."

Earl Potter.

The words echoed through his mind for a moment. Then his manners caught up to him and he said, "Thank you, I don't know how I can ever thank you enough."

"Well, you can start by thanking us properly," Molly said, holding her arms out expectantly.

Harry got up and stumbled into the hug. He knew he was probably clutching at her too tightly, but she didn't seem to mind. When Harry finally released the hug with Molly, he turned to Arthur, arms still slightly extended. Arthur held up his arms too and Harry stepped into the embrace.

The second hug was enough to do what the first had not, and Harry was mortified to realize that tears were spilling down his face.

He knew now that the Weasleys didn't do things lightly– that by including Harry in their Christmas Eve tradition, they meant that they considered Harry as part of their family. Harry had no idea what he could possibly have done to deserve this, from people who barely knew him. And then there was the gift itself.

Harry had made all the gifts he was giving people for Christmas by hand with things that Ginny had obtained for him, and while he did think it was a nice personal touch to give a gift that he had made, he did deeply appreciate the option to purchase future gifts.

And then there was the fact that Harry wouldn't have to worry about being a burden or not having choices again. Arthur had said that the money was his, no matter if he left the castle or not, which meant that Harry could leave, if he wanted to.

The realization that he _could_ leave, made him realize all the more that he had no desire to leave.

Arthur had started rubbing circles onto Harry's back and Harry took a shuddering deep breath in. He focused on breathing deeply until he stopped crying. He stepped out of the hug and swiped at his eyes, then said, "I'm sorry, I just. This is all a bit overwhelming."

"I'm sure it is," Arthur said.

Then Harry realized that all the Weasleys were staring at him and he felt the overwhelming need to get out of there. "I'm sorry," he said, "I have to go."

With that, he bolted out of the room and towards his own room. It took him mere moments to get there at the speed he was running at and, in his haste, he left the door open on his way to collapsing in his favorite armchair.

It didn't take him long to realize that he didn't want to be truly alone anymore than he had wanted to be stared at by the entire family. He pulled out his wand and held the memory of dancing with Ginny in his mind. He started to cast, "_Expecto–_" When he was interrupted by a knock on his door frame.

He whipped around and saw that the very person he was about to send his patronus to was standing in the open doorway.

"Hey," Ginny said.

Harry stood from his seat and said, "Hey."

"I just wanted to see if you were alright," Ginny said. "I can leave you alone, if you want, but I just wanted to see you."

"No! Please– don't go. I was just about to send my patronus to you," Harry said.

"Oh good," Ginny said, stepping into his room.

Harry stepped around his coffee table to his loveseat and sat down on it. He patted the seat next to him invitingly and Ginny quickly made her way over to sit next to him.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked, gently taking one of his hands between her own.

Harry shifted so that his head was resting on Ginny's shoulder as he thought about it. He'd figured out that he didn't want to be alone, but did he want to talk about it?

"I'm not sure," he said. "It's just– so much has happened today, you know? When I woke up this morning, I didn't even know what color my mum's eyes were and now I know a bit about their lives and what happened to their friends and just all that tragedy. And on top of that, I think your parents were trying to say that they consider me family…"

He trailed off and in the silence he left, Ginny said, "I can tell you that they definitely consider you family. They have for a while, really. There's just something about you. I think my mum decided you were family from the first time she laid eyes on you outside the Dursleys house. You know, when you had to ask what the guards were doing with the Dursleys."

Harry groaned at the reminder. Then he said, "There's no way she's thought that for that long, she didn't even know me then!"

"She did! She just didn't say anything because she didn't want to overwhelm you. You were already so shocked that we weren't taking you to be a servant that my parents didn't think it would be a good idea to dump too much on you at first. And then, I guess the timing never felt right to tell you."

Harry shook his head slightly in disbelief. But then he thought back over all his interactions with Molly– and Arthur, too– and realized that they'd never really treated him like he was the charity case he'd assumed they saw him as. He rubbed his hand over the back of his neck and said, "Well, they were probably right about waiting. Though I do wish Alice had been available sooner so this all didn't happen on the same day."

"Yeah," Ginny said. "That was pretty rotten timing."

"It's alright though. It's mostly all good things and I'll get used to it soon enough," Harry said.

Ginny slid her arm around his shoulders and said, "Since you ran out early, my parents didn't get a chance to say it, so I'm going to steal their thunder. Welcome to the family, Harry."

* * *

_**December 25th**_

Ginny woke up earlier than she normally would that day. It took her a moment of laying in the light of the sunrise for her to realize just why she had woken up so early.

_It's Christmas!_

As soon as she had that realization, she shoved her covers down and swung her legs off the bed. She stayed seated on her bed for a moment, considering what she ought to do first. She still had some time before breakfast with her family– which was followed by presents– and she still needed to get dressed and practice her speech for Harry's gift.

Ginny wanted this Christmas to be perfect. It was Harry's first Christmas with her family, his first proper Christmas, really, if she had learned anything about the Dursleys.

She decided to get dressed first, then practice her speech. She got to her feet and strode over to her closet, considering all her clothing options. A heartbeat after she started considering, she decided to just go with her most comfortable trousers and shirt. She donned the articles quickly, then made her way over to stand in front of her full length mirror.

Pulling out her wand, she summoned the parchment where she'd written out what she planned to say to Harry.

Several weeks ago, she had started planning this speech. It hadn't been any particular moment that had driven her to it, just the culmination of dozens, scores, hundreds, thousands of moments all telling her the same thing. That Harry Potter was someone special, and someone she wanted by her side.

When she had finally convinced herself that she truly wanted him, that he wasn't just a fleeting fancy or brief obsession– like her mum had been half convinced he was– she had set pen to paper and started drafting the speech she now held in her hand.

At first, she'd been Harry's primary tutor. She had just graduated Hogwarts last May and she was on the fence as to what she wanted to study for her mastery. So tutoring Harry had

presented a convenient and enjoyable way to delay making a decision regarding her mastery. And it was a great way for her to get to know the man that she had become enamored with at first sight.

Unfortunately, if she wanted to officially court Harry, she could not be his tutor. Ginny personally couldn't care less, but her parents had already trod over the Council enough recently that they had asked her to follow tradition, at least somewhat, as she pursued Harry.

So part of her speech was her resigning as Harry's tutor. She'd found a replacement, one of her own tutors from her early education, a woman named Tonks. And she rather thought that Tonks and Harry would get along nicely.

Ginny cleared her throat and shook out the papers, then placed them on the table beside the mirror. She thought that she was ready to recite the speech without an aid. so she stared herself right in the eye in the mirror and began to speak from memory.

She was interrupted in the middle of one of her many run throughs by a knock on her door.

Ginny knew, without even opening the door or casting a spell, that she would find Harry on the other side of the door.

"Good morning, Harry," Ginny said, opening the door.

"G'morning, Ginny," Harry said.

Ginny knew that he'd likely been up for hours, but despite the effort that Ginny knew Harry would have put into flattening his hair and otherwise tidying up his appearance, he looked as though he'd rolled out of bed mere moments before.

And Ginny thought that he looked absolutely endearing this way.

"Are you ready to go?" Harry asked.

Ginny cleared her throat and said, "Yeah, just give me a moment." She hurried back over to the table by her mirror and shoved the parchment into her pocket, then rushed over to the pile of shrunken boxes on her coffee table and scooped them all into one of her enlarged pockets.

"Alright," she said, as she walked back over to her door, "I'm ready to go now." Then she held out her arm for Harry to take. As always, Harry gently placed his hand on her arm.

This was one of the many reasons that Ginny was so sure that Harry was the one. He never seemed self-conscious or insecure about Ginny taking the lead on things. In fact, he even seemed to appreciate it.

None of the other princes or noblemen sons that Ginny had had the misfortune to interact with would ever have let Ginny escort them around. They would have found it damaging to their puny egos and when Ginny sensed that kind of attitude, she was invariably overcome with the urge to squash them under her heel. But Harry had never, not once, activated that instinct in her.

He was special that way.

As she turned her head to glance at Harry, she took a moment to appreciate something else that set Harry apart from all the other men she was forced to put up with: he was the perfect– short– height for her to look into his eyes like this.

Oh, she knew that he was technically a tad bit taller than her, but it was such a negligible difference that they may as well be the same height.

"So, what did you get everybody?" Ginny asked, guiding them down a side corridor that would take them on a more roundabout path to the parlor that her family would be exchanging gifts in.

"You know I'm trying to keep it a surprise," Harry said.

A quick glance showed that he had an absolutely adorable smile spread across his face and Ginny felt herself reflexively smile in response. She'd forgotten that Harry was trying so hard to keep all his presents a surprise and that that was why he'd been avoiding her brothers like the plague for so long.

She didn't blame him, really. Ginny knew that if it weren't for her proficiency with the Bat-Bogey Hex, her brothers would harass her just as much as they'd seemed inclined to harass Harry. She would never risk pushing Harry into avoiding her, so she'd decided to leave the matter of presents alone.

It wasn't like she wasn't about to find out what he'd gotten her, anyways.

"Oh, that's right," she said, "sorry, I can wait."

"Thank you," Harry said, sounding relieved.

Ginny took her other hand and rubbed it gently across the back of Harry's hand that was on her own.

They walked the rest of the way to the parlor in companionable silence. The kind of silence that echoed back to long mornings spent studying together, and golden afternoons spent flying together, and countless other moments spent together.

Breakfast passed by in an anticipatory blur, as did the walk to the parlor with their Christmas tree. As always, her family settled in around the Christmas tree, and Ginny made sure to pull Harry down to sit right next to her.

Ginny was hard pressed to keep her affection for Harry at bay while she sat through the seemingly interminable gift exchange. She'd already exacted promises from everyone that she could present Harry with his gift last, but she found herself bouncing her leg against the floor impatiently.

When she realized what she was doing, she stopped herself sheepishly, thoughts of Mistress Andromeda's endless lessons on comportment parading through her mind.

When it was her turn to give a gift, she absentmindedly shuffled through her pocket for the gift and tossed it at the appropriate person, cancelling the shrinkage spell as it soared through the air.

Her eyes rarely strayed from Harry's face, even when it was her turn. Because his face was the most expressive work of art she'd ever had the pleasure to witness. He was just– so _happy_ to be there.

And when his widened and his jaw dropped in surprise when Ron presented Harry with a clumsily wrapped gift, Ginny had to fight the twin urges to kiss the expression off his face and to kill the Dursleys.

Since her goal for the day was to be able to kiss his adorable mouth, she very determinedly focused on that particular urge.

Her pleasure at watching Harry react to receiving gifts and his joy at giving them was interrupted when she realized that it was time for Harry to present her with his gift to her.

"Ginny," he said, fumbling around in his pockets, "I've made you a gift, and I really, _really_ hope you'll like it. You're the person that I owe the most to, the person who took me away from my life at the Dursleys– if it could even be called that, because I've realized since moving into the castle that whatever I was doing before was not living.

"It was merely existing. Surviving. And Ginny, you have been the one to show me all the ways that I can _live_ instead. And I don't think I can ever thank you enough for that."

Ginny was transfixed by the emotion in his face and his voice that she hadn't noticed that he'd pulled out a small, very carefully wrapped, box.

"Here," he said, placing the box into her hands. "This is for you. Until last night, I didn't know that I had any money at all, so I handmade your gift like I made everyone else's…"

He continued babbling about how he hoped the gift was sufficient, or something, but Ginny had attention only for the snowglobe that she had just unwrapped.

It was perfectly charmed to continually deposit the perfect amount of snow to set the environment, but not so much that the figures lying in the snow were obscured. And Ginny was so glad that the figures were clearly visible, because they were beautiful renditions of her and Harry lying side by side.

They were making snow angels, she realized belatedly. And, examining the little figures closer, Ginny saw that they were so detailed that the tips of their noses were red from the cold.

"Harry," she said, interrupting his self-deprecating speech, "this is incredible."

Harry sighed, and seemed to lose a load of tension that Ginny hadn't even realized he was carrying. "Are you sure? Because I could buy you something now–"

"No! Don't do that," Ginny said, clutching the snow globe against her chest. "I love it. I love y– your art." She took a deep breath to steady herself. She couldn't believe that she'd almost said 'I love you'.

The words had been on the tip of her tongue ever since she'd started writing the speech she still had to give, but she'd held them back using all the force of her formidable will. She was certain that the number of people who had said those words to Harry was bound to be limited to half a handful, and she didn't want Harry to feel pressured into saying yes to courting her.

Because she was sure that he already felt indebted to her in some ways– despite her protests otherwise– and if they were going to be together, she wanted it to be because Harry truly reciprocated her feelings and not because he felt like he had to, for whatever reason.

"I'm glad you like it," Harry said softly, almost inaudibly. Fred and George had begun their annual comedy routine that they insisted on performing when it came time for them to exchange gifts with each other, and Ginny gladly tuned them out to focus on taking Harry's hand in hers and squeezing it reassuringly.

They stayed like that, seated on a loveseat and holding each other's hand, until finally, _finally_ it was time for Ginny to give Harry his gift.

She gently released Harry's hand and got to her feet.

Harry cocked his head curiously to the side, luminous green eyes wide in the brightly sunlit room. She forced herself to focus.

"Harry James Potter you came into my life a few short months ago, but it feels as though I have known you for far longer. You are unlike any other potential suitor that I have ever encountered for so many reasons that I would probably lose my voice if I tried to list them all.

"So, I'll just list a few. You never, for a moment, acted like you were entitled to my attention or, well entitled to anything at all. And I know a lot of that is derived from your belief that you don't deserve anything at all, we _will_ be working on that, no matter how today goes. And you're really good at listening when I talk, even when you don't know much about what I'm saying.

"The time we spend together doing fun things, like flying or duelling together, are some of the best moments of my life. And I love spending time with you so much that I have a good time with you, even when we're doing boring things like sitting through events."

Ginny paused to clear her throat and admire the beautifully shocked and slightly teary eyed look on Harry's face. Then she continued.

"When we first came to get you from the Dursleys, I mentioned that I intended to court you. Of course, I'm sure you noticed that I never brought it up again. That's because I was informed that, if I were to court you, then I would not be allowed to tutor you.

"So, I had to decide between courting you right from the start and getting to tutor you– which has been, as you know, an excellent way for us to spend hours together everyday. I decided that it would be better if we got to bond without pressure while I tutored you. I've made arrangements for your tutoring for if you say yes. Because I don't want to wait any longer."

Ginny took a step towards Harry and he got to his feet as well. She took his hand in hers and took a deep breath.

"So, Harry, will you allow me to court you?"

Harry squeezed her hand and his beautiful green eyes glistened with unshed tears. She had to squash the urge to wipe them away, sure that it wasn't the time to be doing that.

"You– you still want me?" Harry said, then quickly added, "To court me?"

"Of course I do, I always have," Ginny said. It was distressing that Harry was clearly still so insecure, but that was one of the many things that she was going to work on with him, no matter the outcome.

"But…" Harry said, blinking rapidly and swinging his head around the room. Ginny thought that it looked like he was looking for– for danger, or something. Maybe some kind of dissent from her family?

"But?" Ginny prompted.

"How can anyone be okay with this? I'm not anything _special_, I'm just Harry! And, and, I don't even know much magic yet, let alone all the things you need to know to be royalty, and…"

He trailed off, but Ginny let the silence hang. She wanted to hear everything that he had to say before she started reassuring him.

It didn't take long for him to burst out, "I just don't deserve you!"

Ginny's eyes closed for a moment, then she took yet another deep breath and said, "Harry, you _do_ deserve me. You want to know how I know?"

She paused briefly and Harry nodded quickly.

"Because I say that you do," Ginny said simply.

Harry's face failed to clear and he was still tense, so Ginny continued.

"No one else's opinion matters here, it's just you and me. And I think that you deserve me more than anyone else ever has. There's no reason for us not to court, as long as you feel the same way about me."

Harry's eyes widened and he said, "I _do_ feel the same way! But–"

"But what? Courting isn't engagement or marriage? If you like me, then there's no reason we shouldn't give this a try."

Harry stared at her, jaw slightly open. Ginny was happy to let this sink in, so she remained quiet. She was glad that her family was letting her handle this, because if someone had gotten involved, she probably would have snapped and cast a bat bogey on them.

And her parents had _not_ been pleased the last time she'd done that.

Any of the tension and anxiety that Ginny had been harboring expelled from her body all at once when Harry tugged on her hands, then released them so he could place his hands on her shoulders. Ginny held herself still as she stared into his green eyes. They were still so wide and enchanting and had a bit of a shine to them from the tears he never shed.

Then she saw his eyes drop down to her lips, then back to her eyes. Harry's head tilted to the side and he leaned forward, brushing his lips against hers. Ginny brought her hand up to rest on the nape of his neck and returned the pressure against his lips.

Ginny leaned back slightly and breathed against his lips, "Does this mean you'll court me?"

"Yes," Harry breathed back, then pressed his lips against hers again.

It was only the knowledge that her family was right there that kept her from deepening the kiss, and when they finally broke apart, Ginny took the moment to stare into Harry's green eyes. She hoped that the coming weeks, months, years would allow her to fill them with the happiness and peace that he deserved.

* * *

AN: sorry this is late! please review!


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